Projects – Power & Energy Systems Laboratory

Cost-effective rehabilitation of public buildings into smart and resilient nano-grids using storage:

The high energy consumption in the building sector, that is primarily fossil-fuel based, and the limited availability of the national electric grid in some remote or rural areas of the Mediterranean region call for new solutions that ensure stability and power quality of energy provision and higher penetration of renewable energy sources. In this context, BERLIN aims to implement cross-border pilot measures to support innovative and cost-effective energy rehabilitations in public buildings based on the nano-grid concept, the building block for smart micro-grids. The project will focus on increasing grid penetration, combined with energy storage and demand-side management, along with enhancement of energy efficiency in buildings. The goal is to reach high levels of self-resilience in public buildings and to make them greener, smarter, more innovative and sustainable. The project will implement 8 energy rehabilitation pilot actions which bring effectively together photovoltaic, energy storage, smart grid elements, home automation, etc. to achieve a self-sufficient nano-grid.

BERLIN tool for PV+ESS+DSM systems: https://berlintool.eu/

Enhancing storage integration in buildings with Photovoltaics:

The primary goal of PV ESTIA project is to:
The main project outputs are:
Enhance the integration of Photovoltaics and Energy Storage Systems in the building environment in 5 pilot areas, thus facilitating the transition towards Nearly Zero Energy Buildings.
Identify and tackle barriers in PV deployment
Provide a new energy management solution for residential and commercial buildings, taking into consideration potential interactions with the electrical grid
Transform buildings into a controllable energy source
Design and implement proper policies and regulations

EnTRAINER Energy Transition Audits towards Decarbonization:

EnTRAINER aims to introduce a paradigm shift from conventional energy audits to a new, holistic and complete methodology of “Energy Transition Audits” (ETA). With this new approach, the main focus is to provide a multi-benefit scheme and a complete action plan towards full decarbonization of the audited sites. The holistic methodology of EnTRAINER includes training elements, in the form of 2 accredited courses for energy auditors and energy experts and 1 course for company staff. It also includes a sophisticated web-portal, with 4 new and upgraded tools, freely offered to energy professionals, and a training platform and knowledge hub that will allow a continuous interaction and knowledge sharing between participants.
A further element is the support provided to those industrial sites to actually implement the proposed audit measures, aiming to bring together top management and financing bodies and in addition to guide them to take advantage of existing and future funding opportunities.

StoRES “Promotion of higher penetration of distributed
PV through storage for all”:

The project “Promotion of higher penetration of distributed PV through storage for all” with the acronym StoRES, is co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg Mediterranean (MED) programme. It is a pilot demonstration project approved under Priority Axis 2 (Fostering low-carbon strategies and energy efficiency in specific MED territories: cities, islands and remote areas), aiming to increase the share of local Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in energy mix strategies and plans in specific MED territories. StoRES is an Interreg MED modular project and was implemented by a consortium of 19 highly capable and well established organisations (both private and public) spanning across the MED region.

Octane

Coming soon

Panama

Like many other industries, failures in the operation of a solar power plant result in unexpected breakdowns and loss of production and income. Because of unexpected breakdowns, 55 % of the maintenance works are based on reactive maintenance. Regular and scheduled works, the so called “preventive maintenance”, correspond to 31 % and predictive maintenance has currently got a fraction of 12 %. All these maintenance schemes are based on three data analytics techniques which are descriptive (what happened), diagnostic (why it happened) and predictive (what will happen). However, all this only assist on a limited basis. It is in the interest of asset owners and managers to take this further to a solution-oriented maintenance approach which gives the answer to the question: What action should be taken? Prescriptive analytics provides recommended actions based on prior outcomes, where a recommended course of action to achieve a specific outcome. Hence, “prescriptive maintenance” comes into play where it helps adding the ability to give advice to the technician on what to do and how to repair by taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. In this project, an O&M suite which utilizes prescriptive analytics, advanced performance monitoring and mobile workforce management tools for solar power plants shall be developed, validated and demonstrated in an operating environment. The prescriptive maintenance tool shall predict faults using machine learning and AI. It shall also detect the faults, locate them, and provide necessary recommendations to the technical teams on site helping them to solve the problem in the most proper way and short-time. If necessary, it shall also assign the works in an automated way. This workforce management tool will guide the technical teams at site to solve the problem with advance visualization capabilities as well as online guidance from all the teams even at different locations.

Sunsharing

The SunSharing project enables consumers to support the energy transition by forging alliances and crowdfunding community energy projects in the participating countries. The project analyses the current policy situation for implementing energy communities and crowdfunding initiatives, and together with public authorities develops a set of recommendations on how to improve these policies. Furthermore, it maps the best practice examples coming from other EU countries and develops a publicly available database which is presented to local authorities and citizens. Moreover, SunSharing facilitates cross-border knowledge transfer, establishes networks for consumers, academia and policymakers and raises awareness concerning the benefits of investing in renewable energy. In this regard, the project organises events to facilitate knowledge transfer on legislation and best practices and runs campaigns to set the ground for crowdfunding initiatives. To achieve these goals, SunSharing focuses on the respective countries’ citizens as they represent the main driver of energy transition and their impact improves by developing such energy communities and organising crowdfunding initiatives. In the long-term, this contributes significantly to decarbonisation of the power sector reaching renewable energy targets and reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the implementing countries. Consequently, this will also boost the energy security of these countries by reducing dependence on fossil fuels.